Toddler buys $25 onion on dad’s phone: BBC News Review

hello and welcome to News Review from our home studios we are locked down like

many millions of other people because of the corona virus but we are still here

to bring you headlines and vocabulary you can learn from them hi Catherine

hello Neil and hello everybody yes today we have a story about onions

Neil how much would you pay for an onion oh well not much more than about 30 P

that's about 50 US cents I guess well here's a story about somebody who paid

20 pounds for one onion 20 pounds for an onion well let's find out some more

about that story from this BBC news report BBC news beat it's one of the

most important lessons in life don't leave your unlocked phone lying

around Joni Mitchell wasn't listening though his one-year-old was straight on

there not with a joke Facebook status or a million selfies Alice chose delivery

and spent 20 quid on an onion 1 year-old daughter a single onion plus she got it

delivered and it cost 20 pounds incredible well I certainly hope they

enjoyed that onion well you've been looking at this story and you've picked

out words and expressions we can use water we found yes today we have eye

watering and I watering racks are and the Mews okay let's hear your first

headline with that word eye watering please and we're here in the UK with the

Sun first the headline that's sure lot toddler playing with her dad's phone

spends an eye-watering 20 pounds on a single onion eye watering

describes an amount much larger than expected yes so a two-word phrase here

joined with a - the first word is ie ye then - and then watering W a TR ing so I

watering near what kind of things make your eyes water

well painful things unpleasant things yes nasty experiences things that make

you sad yes things that make you cry yeah things that make you cry so we use

this figuratively to say an amount of money in this case that is really

shocking outrageous much more than you're expecting and can make you

literally go oh my god I don't believe it and almost start to cry with pain or

fear or distress that's I watering now 20 pounds on a single onion is a lot of

money and here it's described as an eye-watering 20 pounds so the way we use

this expression eye watering is we have an eye watering and then the amount of

money that you spend on something and it's to say it's an outrageous shocking

amount of money that you really don't want to spend this headline though

Katherine is a perfect example of a double meaning upon a play on words as

we call it can you explain what it is well yes I can yes no new what happens

when you chop onions I cry my eyes water yeah it's a very common reaction to

onions it makes you cry so I watering the year means shocked at the amount of

money but they're using it in an onion story because it's a really cool

wordplay a very good example of headline word wordplay it's not just about money

though is it it's to do with large amounts yes

any amount which is more than normal more than expected and

is a bit shocking and painful in a way so you might say I had to work for an

eye-watering 24 hours without a break I did yeah I was trying to get that

English the cat's video done on time and I used it without a number there but it

was still quite shocking what an idea okay let's have a summary of that way

time now for our second headline and we're off to the BBC here in the UK now

the headline is toddler rocks up I water in 20 pound delivery onions Bell racks

up gathers a large amount of something yes now this one's a phrasal verb there

are two parts in this verb rocks are a or AC K s and the second word up it's a

separable phrasal verb so you can rack something up or you can rack up

something okay obviously this is connected to the word rack what is a

rack a rack is a kind of shelf with a lot of compartments a set of shelves

with a look with a set of compartments so you can really put more and more

things into these different spaces on your rack you may have a have you got a

wine rack Neal I don't have a wine rack but I have wine if you have a lot of

wine a lot of bottles of wine you might have a wine rack which is a place that

you can keep the bottles in separate compartments and it keeps them organized

and tidy so and you will add to that wine rack as you build up your wine

collection you will add more and more bottles and that's the idea of rack up

you accumulate you get more and more of something gradually awesome usually

gradually it can be quickly I mean but it's it's it's

incremental II piece by piece amount by amount so if you rack up a big

build in this case you spend some money you spend some more money you spend some

more money and suddenly you spend a lot of money you can rack up a big bill you

can rack up the surprising bill you can rack up a 20-pound bill in this case

there wasn't a lot on the it seems like it was one onion plus delivery so it

wasn't a lot of accumulation but the idea is that she's created this larger

than expected bill yeah and you can give the sense also that something is getting

too expensive for example you could say the cost of my house improvements are

really racking up yeah you're spending more and more money yes good example the

idea of Rucka Rucka it's usually not a positive idea the idea is you're

spending more than expected or too much money okay yes Rocka

isn't always used just for money it's for anything that you can accumulate we

often use it in sport to talk about your scores are you a cricket fan at all oh I

love cricket cricket for people who don't know is a very popular game in

England Australia New Zealand India the subcontinent Pakistan places less and

there's quite a high scoring game is that you can score hundreds of points in

cricket you score hundreds of runs hopefully and so are you good can you

rack up a good school when you're on the field in cricket Neil yeah so I get my

eight-year-old son to Bowl at me in my garden and I really rack up the runs I

knocked the ball four and six over and over again yeah I don't be funny but I

think I could rack up a good score against you it's not particularly fair

but it's very satisfying shall we have a summary of that

if you would like to see another story about food we have a good one here about

eating red meat and whether or not that is a good thing to do yes my home dear

Catherine well it's here if you click the link we

answer the question is eating meat really bad for you

ok on to your final headline so we're off now to Australia for 10 daily and

the headline is a dad's hilarious tweet about his daughter ordering onions on

delivery has gone viral his biggest reaction leaving thousands

delighted bemused meaning a little confused yes bemused be us amused it

sounds a little bit like amused is there a connection well it's related I think

you've got if you are amused a.m. you SED something's funny something's

entertaining something makes you happy it's enjoyable so something that's

amusing is makes you happy and delighted if something is been using if

something's been using it is kind of funny and enjoyable but it's also

confusing so a lot of things that little kids do it is bemusing it makes you feel

bad news so yes you're amused but it's because of some confusion or

bewilderment or what just happened there yeah you often see you often see

tourists looking a bit bemused you do yes if you've ever seen a tourist in

your hometown somebody from overseas looking at the food or look at things

out or try to work out a ticket machine they're kind of enjoying their visit to

your country often but they're kind of confused by things they don't know how

everything works so they've got that like weird look on their faces do your

boom used look for is new that's quite a big used look

imagine you're a tourist and you don't know what's going on kinda thing I've

had that experience many many times me too yes the experience of everybody else

laughing at you doing your bemused face I do hope so what are the joys of

traveling I hope it doesn't provoke the musem n't bemusement is a very nice noun

yes you can have a feeling of bemusement you can have a look of the newsmen t'

remember you must be mused new well a few weeks ago now when we were in the

office I came in and there was this huge jar of biscuit uneaten right there right

next to Rob yeah and it was full he wasn't he wasn't eating them I mean

normally his face would be sort of pushed into the jar munching away

swallowing and munching and all these kind of eating noises but he wasn't

interested and it was extremely the music incredible I'm Jay my bemused face

right now I can't believe my ears Rob not eaten all those biscuits was he

ill that day he must have been he must have been ill I'm not surprised you were

bemused okay let's have a summary of that word

time now for a recap of our vocabulary please yes we had eye watering describes

an amount much larger than expected racks up gathers a large amount of

something the news little confused if you'd like to test yourself on this

vocab there's a quiz you can take on our website BBC learning english.com stay

safe and see you soon bye